The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 5, 1985-- Page 7 Dewey Redman... Too early for Spring Cleaning? SBy arwulf arwulf D EWEY Redman sat quietly fing- ering his saxophone and looking relaxed. It was between sets at the U-Club, and he was catching his breath after nearly an hour of hard work with the horn in front of hbim. The room was filled with a ;resh, sweet aroma; I had brought Dewey a vase of freesia - deep gellowfreesia, just about the most Iragant flower you can find. Their Tragrance was perceptible upon en- Jering the room. Dewey raised them ,up, inhaled deeply, then sighed, .Z'Magnifique." I was paying homage to one of my ' life's heroes. His recordings had been inspiring ,me for years. There's the first album, Look for the Black Star, 'currently out of print on the :Arista/Freedom label, the master- a. 4ul Ear of the Behearer, Coincide, then a tumultuous tenure with Or- ette Coleman, presenting Dewey ahe fireball. Listening to these Lessions, (Ornette's Science Fiction, d~ove Call, and Broken Shadows), one feels honored to have caught these two together, as the sparks really ly. Dewey appeared on Charlie 4Iaden's Liberation Music Or- K chestra album in 1973. He appears on' numerous Keith Jarret releases, ~providing lots of oomph, and there ollow a couple of imaginative ,releases on the Galaxy label. bewey's recent work includes several sessions with the 'Univer- aity of Ornette' organization Old And few Dreams, (Don Cherry, Dewey 'Redman, Charlie Haden, and Ed .Blackwell). His very latest album is on ECM records; The Struggle Con- Jinues. All of this constitutes a fascinating and monumental career 'vhich parallels the work of the finest elements in jazz since Coltrane. Dewey has become famous for his peculiar habit of singing, growling and screaming into the horn, By Jeffrey Seller A T 11:35 ON A Tuesday nig a demanding Crucible re Julianne Bernstein, playwright, and director, rush to immerse herself in graduat applications, rewrites of he Spring Cleaning, and invitatio English Department for its pre Wednesday. She is also dire( play. For Bernstein, this is the pin her harried four years at the sity. She began her college car Residential College, impulsiv sferred to the Musical Theatre1 and dissatisfied, transferred; LS&A. After two years i colleges, she hopped on a plan necticut where she studie semester at the National Th stitute of the Eugene O'Neil Entering as an insecure act emerged an ambitious playwri "O'Neill, by exposing everything they were able, allowed me to fall into the area most comfortable ;ht, after for me: playwrighting," asserts an en- hearsal, thusiastic Bernstein. actress, Indeed, immediately after returning es home to the University in the Winter of 1984, te school she won the prestigious Hopwood er play, Award for her first play, Clown White. ns to the What began as a three page scene bet- miere on ween two circus clowns, developed into cting the a full, one-act play which launched her ob- sesseion with playwrighting. nnacle of Bernstein directed Clown White here Univer- last fall. Now, she's at it again, direc- eer in the ting her new play Spring Cleaning ely tran- which she began after winning the program Hopwood. again to "I call it an encounter play . . . a n three meeting betwwen two kids, one 14, one e to Con- 10, who have been castigated by the d for a adult world," says Berstein. "They eatre In- connect on a social, economic, and 1 Center. emotional level, and ultimately rely on ress, she each other for the means to survive. ght. Both abandoned in some way, they both me to react, respond, and feel - yet they try to make their situations better, they don't wallow in depression, they don't evaluate." Directing your own play is dangerous, Bernstein admits. "I have to be careful not to direct the meaning, the thematic inferences, but instead, to direct the actors and propel the action of the play. Ultimately, they have to work the moments; they have to convey reasonable, sound, empathetic charac- ters." Berstein owes much of her playwright's sensibility to her teacher Milan Stitt, writer of The Runner Stumbles. "He taught me structure. He took my head out of the clouds and into my writing. When I started I was more into being a playwright than sitting down and writing plays." "It's hard when your first play does so well," confesses Bernstein, "because you expect so much from your next play." "Spring Cleaning is a better play," she says. "Clown White was better on paper than on stage. It was a discussion. In Spring Cleaning, from the first moment to the end, something is happening. I've gotten rid of the stuff that doesn't further the plot." "I put my trust in the simplicity of the piece. You wonder, can two kids, living out their fantasies, sustain today's audience preoccupied with social/political issues like nuclear war?" The answer is a definitive "yes," asserts Bernstein. "In its simplicity, it addresses the social questions, it narrows them down to bare essentials - the human heart and the effect our world has on it . . . That's what my writing's about." Spring Cleaning along with another original play, The Function of Arrow Route and Other Appliances, written and directed by Beth Lane, will be per- formed Wednesday and Thursday, February 6 and 7 at 4:10 p.m. in the Trueblood Theatre in the Freize Building. Admission is free. ...Merci beaucoups, Dewey. producing sounds all his own. He also enjoys playing musette; a straight horn of brass and wood commonly used in Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe, as well as in Africa, particularly among the master musicians of Jajouka, Morocco. Often, while playing this whining instrument, Dewey in- terrupts his blowing to sing "in an unknown tongue", his voice contrac- ted and high, meaningless multisyllabic jibber-jabber bursting from his lips. The effect, especially caught live, is enchanting and somewhat thrilling, if not awesome. Dewey, like Ornette, is from Texas; they went to the same school. And, like any other 'Texas Tenor', he can usually be depended upon to whip out a juicy rhythm and blues number, altered, of course, to fit his own personality. The best examples of this on record are "Boody", from The Ear of the Behearer LP, and the contagious "Roll Over Baby", from his latest album. This last one had folks standing up and cheering at the U-Club that fine evening. Dewey played an encore and retreated to the room with the freesias. After they paid him, I opened a bottle of chilled white wine for him, presented the cork with a flourish. With a towel round the bottle I poured Dewey Redman a glass. "Merci, monsieur," said Dewey. I bowed low, towel on my arm. Thank you, Dewey. Metallica breaks sound barrier with kickass metal (Continued from Page 6) crowd. Some he would kiss good-bye, others he would lick, and still others he would rub between his legs before tossing. But he wasn't finished-near the end of the song Blackie reappeared on stage holding a human skull (not real mind you) filled with blood (also not real). He lifted the skull into the air and proceeded to pour the blood into his mouth. What didn't make it gushed out of his mouth and splattered on his chest. When he finished he gave an im- pish smile and hurled the skull into the audience ( it was a good night for souvenirs). Answering to a chorus of Blackie!!, Blackie! !, W.A.S.P. returned to the stage for a two song encore. First they played the banned single "Animal (I -- Like A Beast) " their heaviest song of the night and then finished the night off with "I Wanna Be Somebody" amidst smoke and flashing lights. All in all a great show. There will probably never be a louder concert than a Metallica concert. In fact they were so loud that the first song ''Fight Fire With Fire" couldn't be made out because of all the feedback. After that song the sound quality was fine. Metallica then proceeded to play "Ride the Lightning" and "Phantom Lord" to precision with all the loudness they could muster. Cliff Burton, head- banging all the way, went into his bass solo, "(Anesthesia) -Pulling Teeth", which was followed by "For Whom the Bell Tolls" a rocker inspired by the Hemingway Novel. Metallica did not have much of a stage show. They basically let the music do the talking, except for the in- strumental, "Call of Ktulu". The new song "Am I Evil", off the recently released EP Creeping Death and "Motorbreath", two quality, thum- ping encores ended Metallica's reign over the Royal Oak Music Theatre. Heavy Metal's bad boys left shaking hands and slapping five with those lucky enough' to have front-row status. "Well be back," the band shouted, and loyal heavy metalists will make them keep that promise. Going somewhere out-of-the-ordinary this summer? Going somewhere ordinary in an unordinary way? MAKE YOUR PLANS NOW! uI The Travel Supplement of can help you! LOOK FOR IT ... February 15, 1985 in WEEKEND MAGAZINE ZLV 4jA9PA W Richman unfunny and insecure (Continued from Page 6) using the admittance of insecurity as a way to avoid getting closer. After a short break, he returned with a final half-hour that had all the ear- ' iriarks of oh-my-god-get-me-out-of- hiere-as-soon-as-possible, Reader's Digest Condensed Set hurriedness. Rarely stopping this time to say anything, he offered largely super- sliort versions of songs that segued into dtie another. The effect was a bit like watching a standup comedian who can only spare 30 seconds per charac- terization or joke, for fear of inducing audience comatosis or antagonsism. The next-to-last song was the same as tie show's second, a tune about going to the beach that's likeable in exactly the saine sort of Captain-Kangaroo-with- gfitar way that has long been Rich- man's trademark - the chorus consists 'OK, start up the car" and then four arsof sung engine noises. There was a fM more confidence the second time drund, but it still wasn't enough. With obvious reluctance, Richman emerged a bit later for an encore, siiging a capella a sort-of tune (hard to Sfell whether he was so bummed out he ddldn't remember it all or was ac- tually making parts up as he went along) about how confused he feels on nights like these, wondering if audien- g really need a full band in order to get involved, etc. I try not to play/how folks expect me to be/that's why if I was somebody euse/ I'd come to see me he sang #Musingly, if with rather a loud note of self-congratulation. Once again, the confession of vulnerability was char- Sinig in itself, but it didn't really satisfy the matter of why, and there was an wyleasant undertone of accusation. Jonathan seemed to be cleverly giving us the dig for not being cool enough to birthe audience he wanted, presumably one that rapturously hopped to its feet .ANN ARBOR : Thatms 1 & - Sth Avenue ot Uberty St - 761.9700 0 $ 1.50 Tuesday All Day txcept "Fields" * New Twilight Shows Mon. thr riu. " $1 Oo with this entire ad $1.00 off Adult* .U Eve admission. Coupon good for 1 . 46 OFF or 2 tickets. Good for all features . thru 2/7/85 except Tuesdays. The adventures of two New Yorkers on " their dream vacation to Florida and leveland... in the dead of Winter! " STRANGER THAN " PARADISE : from the first chord. I left the Halfway feeling more than a little annoyed at this; in fact, I wanted to kick a dog right then and there for doing all that whim- pering in the first place. Too bad, too bad. I'd seen Richman twice before a few years ago. and can certainly attest to the fact that he can be great both with and without a band. In my book, at least, he is (or at least almost-always can be) much more than a novelty, a calculated purveyor of retard-rock. Songs like "Affection," in their willingness to lay emotion em- barrassingly bare, are 'child-like' only in that they go for emotional impact without the safety net of 'adult' bullshit- ting around the subject at hand. Much as I love "Rockin' Shopping Center," "I'm Nature's Mosquito" and other Richman classics of gleeful silliness, the guy probably can't (and shouldn't) go on playing 'your friend, Jonathan,' The Man Who would Be King Of Children's Television, forever. Jonathan Sings!' "Not Yet Three' may be cute, but one can grow impatient with such determined infantilism when the performer is well into his 30's. For- tunately, the new songs seem to preserve the charm of simplicity while ditching some of the goo-goo-da-da stuff, especially the disarmingly plain love song "Now is Better Than Ever" and "When I Dance." Richman may always be a person for whom it's never just 'bump' but 'bumpety-bump;' still, there .are some welcome signs that he can apply his sensibility to matters out- side the nursery. It seemed very likely that the 2nd 11:00 show found Richman more war- med up to a probably still warmer audience. My sympathies are momentarily dried-out. Jonathan Richman is a swell guy, but if the price of being a cultist is that one has to blindly forgive all faults, count me out. Somebody give that pup- py a kick. kinko'ySho The Campus Copy Shop COPIES * ENLARGEMENTS BINDING e REDUCTIONS * " PASSPORT PHOTOS AND MUCH MORE Open 7 days a week/Mon.-Thur. till midnight. 540 E. 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